This bill prohibits the homeschooling of children in DYFS care, custody, or supervision. This bill is problematic for two reasons.

First, it introduces the term "home-schooled" into New Jersey law. This is a new development; currently, homeschoolers only operate under a law requiring children not in public school to receive equivalent instruction elsewhere than at school. The introduction of the term "home-school" will have the inevitable result of requiring that the term be defined, which will be seen as an invitation to further regulate and restrict homeschooling.

Next, this bill would have the effect of prohibiting children who should be homeschooled from being homeschooled. Under this bill, if a homeschooled child were snatched from his parent's home and placed with a relative, and no court order had yet assigned custody of the child to DYFS, that child would have to be enrolled in public or private school. Even if the child wanted to be homeschooled, the family caring for the child wanted to homeschool the child, and the social worker felt that homeschooling was in the child's best interests, homeschooling would be prohibited.